Israeli PM Netanyahu orders army to launch 'powerful' strikes as hostage remains dispute threaten truce

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said he has ordered the military to launch “powerful strikes” in Gaza, a move that threatens to unravel a fragile US-brokered ceasefire.

The announcement came amid renewed tension between Israel and Hamas. Israeli officials said their troops came under fire in southern Gaza after Hamas returned what Israel identified as the remains of a hostage killed earlier in the war — a move Netanyahu condemned as a “clear violation” of the ceasefire agreement, which requires the militant group to return all Israeli bodies immediately.

Israeli military official also accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire by carrying out attacks against forces east of the agreed deployment line, as per a report by news agency Reuters.

Thirteen Israeli hostages are still unaccounted for in Gaza. On Tuesday, Hamas said it had recovered the body of one hostage it planned to hand over later in the day. However, Hamas's armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades later announced a decision to postpone the planned handover, citing what it said were Israel's violations of the ceasefire in Gaza.

The group also said on the Telegram messaging app that any Israeli escalation of attacks in Gaza would hinder search and recovery operations and delay the return of the bodies of Israeli soldiers, as per Reuters report.

The painstaking recovery and return of hostage remains have emerged as a major stumbling block to implementing later stages of the ceasefire, which are expected to address more complex issues such as Hamas’ disarmament, the deployment of an international peacekeeping force, and future governance of Gaza.

Hamas has claimed difficulty



locating the bodies amid widespread devastation, while Israeli officials have accused the group of deliberately delaying their return. Egypt has sent experts and heavy equipment to assist in the search, operations that continued Tuesday in Khan Younis and Nuseirat.

This is not the first time confusion has surrounded the transfer of remains. During the first week of the ceasefire, Israel said one of the bodies returned by Hamas belonged to an unidentified Palestinian. A similar mix-up occurred in February, when Hamas said it handed over the bodies of three hostages, including Israeli mother Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, only for DNA tests to show one of the bodies was that of a Palestinian woman. Bibas’ remains were returned the next day, the AP noted.

The latest remains were identified as those of Ofir Tzarfati, Netanyahu’s office said, as per a report by the Associated Press. Tzarfati was among the hundreds abducted from the Nova music festival during Hamas’ October 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel, an attack that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and triggered the war.

Tzarfati was killed in captivity, and his body was retrieved by Israeli troops in November 2023. His family later received additional remains for burial in March 2024. In a statement carried by the AP, the family said this was the third time “we have been forced to open Ofir’s grave and rebury our son.”

Since the current ceasefire began on October 10, Hamas has returned the bodies of 15 hostages. In exchange, Israel has handed over 195 Palestinian bodies to Gaza. The last 20 living hostages were released at the outset of the truce, with Israel freeing about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in return.